Four European Payments processors - Ingenico Group, Nets, Nexi, and Worldline - joined forces to launch an EU advocacy called the European Digital Payments Industry Alliance (EDPIA).
Announced on Thursday, the body will engage in policy discussions impacting the EU payments sector and also push to bring instant, secure and frictionless payments closer to EU citizens, businesses, and public bodies.
The primary aim of the trade body is to make Europe a global leader in digital payments, thus completing the Digital Single Market.
“The EDPIA will give a voice to the incredible technology and engineering behind Europe’s payments industry,” Gilles Grapinet, chairman and CEO of Worldline, said. “Europe has a wealth of world-class payments firms which have become strongholds of Europe’s Fintech environment. We want to help demystifying our industry and offer European society a better understanding of what is behind the payments terminals and online payments engines it uses daily.”
Encouraging transparency in payments
The EDPIA will be inclined towards enforcing the European policy framework that allows intense competition between transparent and market-based solutions.
The announcement also pointed out that the EDPIA is the only trade body that represents specialized Europe-headquartered digital payment services providers that do not engage directly in banking services.
The body also believes that the EU should build a payments ecosystem on the SEPA project, which will boost account-to-account payments.
“As payments specialists, we offer a European perspective, and valuable insights into the payments ecosystem. Alongside our work with banking communities and other financial institutions, we want to empower retailers to fully embrace secure and efficient digital payments solutions. Together, we can enable businesses to reap the benefits of digitization providing further growth across industries in Europe,” Bo Nilsson, CEO of Nets Group and vice president of the EDPIA, said.
“As this health crisis unfolds, cashless and contactless payments are developing stronger than ever as they foster safety for customers and merchants,” Nicolas Huss, CEO of Ingenico Group and vice president of the EDPIA, added. “As we make our way out of this crisis, payments will be crucial to Europe’s recovery. Through EDPIA, Europe’s key industry players are committing to make sure digital payments become a building block for a better, stronger European project.”
